image courtesy of EPICENTER
With the odds against them, Team Secret took down Team Liquid 2-1, after losing the first match and claimed their spot in the grand finals at the second Major of the season.
After two extremely exciting elimination matches so far today at the DreamLeague Season 8 Major, the upper bracket final got underway, featuring Team Secret taking on Team Liquid. While neither team faced elimination from losing the series, a spot in the grand finals awaited the winning team. However, neither team would want to risk the chance of being eliminated in the lower bracket – and with the two teams being neck-a-neck in the current Dota 2 Pro Circuit Points rankings, they will want to secure as many as possible, going toward the end of the year.
Game One
Team Liquid started the game on the front foot, taking a 4-1 lead in the opening seven minutes and farming well through the laning phase. By 15 minutes, Team Liquid were controlling the map, as Team Secret were awaiting Nai Zheng 'MidOne' Yeik’s Medusa and Marcus ‘Ace’ Hoelgaard’s Lone Druid finding the farm to contest. Liquid continued to push their advantage, even though Secret were finally beginning to make a stand and make their way into the game.
As 25 minutes passed, Liquid claimed an aegis and moved forward onto the high ground where they dropped the mid barracks with ease before moving back and taking down the Dire’s outer shrines. Just a few minutes later, Liquid dropped three from Secret’s line up and ripped through the bottom lane barracks and looked assured victory in game one of the series.
After 35 minutes and Team Liquid, and especially Lasse ‘Matumbaman’ Urpalainen on the Tiny absolutely destroying Team Secret’s line up, the Dire team threw in the towel and with that, Liquid secured the first game of the series.
Game Two
With their backs against the wall as they were facing moving down into the lower bracket, Secret would be hoping to tie up the series. The first kill of this game only came just prior to five minutes but it opened up the gates a bit as merely two minutes later there were a total of nine kills on the scoreboard. Both teams were finding constant pick offs and the team fights were scrappy with no clear winners and by 15 minutes the score was tied up at 11-11.
A few minutes later, Secret were able to find a great fight where they dropped 4 from the Radiant line up, claiming track gold on three of the kills too to give themselves a firm lead in the game. When Team Liquid looked to claim a Roshan kill after 20 minutes, Secret contested – and while the first battle went the way of the Radiant team, it was Secret who returned to wipe their opponents from the map and claim the aegis for themselves.
Secret used their advantage to push up to the high ground and claimed the mid lane barracks – and Liquid were unable to defend anymore. A few minutes later and the GG was called as Secret tied up the series at 1-1.
Game Three
The decisive game three begun well for Team Secret as they were winning all their lanes while Liquid were falling behind in the early phase. Secret took a massive lead soon after 10 minutes as Yazied ‘YapzOr’ Jaradat on the Elder Titan found a perfect ultimate to destroy the Dire line up and open up a 12-4 lead with a 6k gold lead. Liquid seemed to be in shambles in this game, as they constantly looked for pick-offs but were met with Secret absolutely destroying them each time.
The Radiant claimed an aegis just prior to 20 minutes before they stamped out a Dire push in the bottom lane – the only saving grace for Team Liquid was the hope that Amer ‘Miracle’ Barqawi on the Morphling could carry them out of the pit they were in. But Secret seemed far too strong for Liquid to deal with as they barraged the mid tier 3 tower over and over before they dropped it, the barracks and wiped the Dire team off the map.
With another aegis in hand, Secret were looking assured of closing out the game with their next push. A 26k lead after 32 minutes and two lanes of barracks in their favor was Secret’s bounty and with another push, Secret claimed mega creeps and the GG was thrown out by Liquid.
With that, Team Secret knock Team Liquid into the lower bracket while they themselves claim the first spot in tomorrow’s best-of-five grand finals at DreamLeague Season 8. Liquid will go on to face the winner of the next match up between Evil Geniuses and Natus Vincere.
